Swearing repeatedly at the KEYE-TV crew and warning them not to set foot on his property as he fumbled with the rope holding the chair up, Bud Johnson reaffirmed it was related to Clint Eastwood’s empty chair routine from the Republican National Convention.

“No it has no other meaning,” Johnson said when asked about the racial connotations of his display. “I’m not a racist, I don’t dislike any race….it’s not a lynch.”

By the time he took the chair down, Johnson had added a small American flag to the display. No flag was present when a photo of the chair was first published on the Texas political blog Burnt Orange Report.

Asked by KEYE why the chair was hanging from a tree, Johnson responded, “because it’s the only place I had to put the damn thing” and said he couldn’t put it on the ground because he likes to keep his grass cut.

“It has nothing to do with race,” he repeated.

Image source: Burnt Orange Report

Later in the day, Johnson told a columnist from the Austin American-Statesmanwhy he chose to take the chair down: “I decided to make the change because some people are stupid.”